The NFL is America’s sport. Football is as close to monocultural as it gets these days; even in a world with nigh-unlimited options available for our entertainment, a lot of us choose football. It is shared culture and it is BIG business.

These teams, these billion-dollar entities – their on-field well-being is placed in the hands of a single man. What kind of person is capable of being all things to all (or at least most) people, in the pocket and in the studio? What kind of person is capable of being a quarterback?

That’s what author John Feinstein wants to tell us in his new book “Quarterback: Inside the Most Important Position in the National Football League” (Doubleday, $27.95). He takes a deep dive into the realities of the position – what it means to play at an NFL level, of course, but also what goes into dealing with the pressures of being THE guy, the one who gets credit for the wins, yes, but also takes the blame for the losses.

Stella and I both handled our business to the tune of 9-5 – a good record, to be sure, but let’s be clear: 9-5 isn’t going to cut it. Not when I’m eight games back. I need to start making real gains soon if I’m going to have any chance of keeping this a contest.

I’ve got a shot to make up some ground this week – even with six teams on bye and just 13 games on the schedule, we’re at odds in just shy of half of them. A big week out of me could close the gap considerably.

So Stella lit me up again in Week 9 – she put up a shocking line of 10-3 against my mere 7-6. That’s another three games tacked onto her lead, putting it up to eight games. Let’s bear in mind that we’ve passed the halfway point of the season – I’ve got a real uphill climb if I’m going to figure out how to make this competitive.

I’m not going to make up much ground this week, regardless of what happens. Stella and I differ on just five of the week’s 14 games; even if I run the table, she’s going to be comfortably ahead. And let’s be real – I’m not going to run the table.

Under most circumstances, a 10-4 week could be considered quite good. It was a solid performance for me. Unfortunately, Stella put up an identically solid 10-4 of her own, meaning that Week 8 is a push and Stella maintains her five-game lead.

Now that we’re entering the bye-heavy weeks of the schedule, there are fewer opportunities available for me to make my move. However, I’m making the most of what I’ve got in Week 9; I’ve disagreed with Stella’s take on seven games – more than half the slate.

It looks to be a chaotic weekend, even less predictable than usual. And we’ve both made some questionable calls. Here’s hoping the ball bounces my way.

It’s safe to say that the second quarter of the Patriots season was a heck of a lot better than the first quarter. After a rough start to the season, New England has cruised to victory in each of the last four games.

They haven’t all been easy. And a couple of them have been quite a bit closer than fans might like. There has been an uncomfortable amount of doing just enough to win – one-score victories over the Chiefs and the Bears left us sweating it out until the end.

But in the end, a win is a win. And four wins is four wins.

The offense definitely picked up steam and the defense held up its end of the bargain (albeit just barely at times). It’s the sort of strong stretch of play against some good teams that instills confidence in the team’s viability going forward.

The .500 team from the first quarter is gone. This is the New England Patriots squad we expected to see – one that appears poised to march to yet another AFC East title and a deep postseason run.

I suppose I should be grateful. After the drubbing I took in Week 6, getting beaten by just one game last week doesn’t seem so bad.

Of course, it means that Stella’s lead is now five games. It’s typical really – she lets be hang around for the first few weeks, then drops a monster week on me to establish a solid lead. From there, she just slowly (and adorably) grinds me into the dirt.

But hey – I’ve got a shot to get some back this week. We’re at odds on over half the slate; eight of the 14 games are in dispute. There’s potential for me to make a big move. There’s also potential for the hole I’m in to get MUCH bigger. We’ll have to see how it goes.

In the years since I started Kibbles and Picks, I’ve grown accustomed to the notion that my dog is better at picking winners than I am. It’s not a great feeling, mind you, but it is one that I’ve gotten used to.

However, every once in a while, there’s a week where she just lays the smack down in such a brutally thorough manner that I find myself wondering why I put myself through this week after week, season after season.

We were at odds on six games in Week 6. I was correct on exactly one of them – Stella nailed the other five. That means that I’ve gone from a tie to a four-game deficit in a single Sunday. And if the Buccaneers had managed to pull off a comeback, it would have been a shutout.

And with the byes coming faster, the opportunities to catch up are going to become fewer. This week, for instance, we’re going head-to-head in just five games. The only way I can fully catch up is to sweep them, but honestly, any gain will be welcome.

I had been maintaining my slim single-game lead over Stella through the past couple of weeks, but Week 5 finally gave her the chance to close that gap. She went 10-5 for the week – one game better than my 9-6 – and so we are now all tied up, thanks to an ugly victory by the Texans over the Cowboys that gave her four wins to my three across the seven games on which we differed.

This time through, we’re at odds on six games. Usually, things stay pretty close, but the truth is that one of us could make a serious move if we go on a run within that half-dozen.

After a solid performance in Week 4 from both sides – identical 10-5 records for Stella and myself – I maintain my slim one-game lead through the season’s one-quarter mark. We split the six games on which we differed – for the record, I had the Bears, Texans and Saints; Stella had the Cowboys, Raiders and Ravens.

As for Week 5, we’re at odds on almost half the slate – seven out of the 15 scheduled games.